Change NMSU scholarship policy

In recent weeks it has been revealed that NMSU has gone $3.3 million over their scholarship budget. As a student at NMSU that depends on a scholarship from the school, this budget deficit is very concerning to me. Although it's been said that no policy changes will be made, I believe it’s time to make some changes.

As of right now, NMSU has a lenient policy on scholarships. Depending on how much money a student has been awarded, a certain GPA needs to be maintained. If this GPA isn’t maintained for one semester, the student is put on a probationary semester and allowed to have a second chance to keep their scholarship.

A study shows that 46.8% of students get off of the probationary period and keep their scholarships. If the administration were to change the current policy, it would remove that almost 50% and help their budget shortfall. The changes I would like to see make the student responsible. If a student needs and depends on their scholarship, they won't mess up and drop their GPA.

The new policy should get rid of the probationary period and hold students accountable for their actions. This would solve the administrations deficit and help give scholarships to the neediest and most deserving students. I hope to see change soon in the scholarship policies at NMSU that benefits the students.

Olivia Gallegos

Albuquerque

Increase spending on infrastructure

I’m new to the Las Cruces area. One thing has really stood out to me while driving around Las Cruces. The infrastructure is in horrible condition, the streets are cracked the painted lines are barely visible and the organization of streets are horribly inefficient and in horrible condition.

So I thought to myself, why doesn’t Las Cruces undergo a project to revitalize its infrastructure.

Journalist Lindsay Giording wrote an article about how the average American family is losing $3,400 annually due to wasting gas and damaging vehicles on inefficient, poorly maintained roads.

Also, infrastructure projects create a lot of new jobs. These jobs also have an income that is mostly over minimum wage, normally only 9.5% of the new jobs would have low income wages, with an average of about $30 an hour. If Las Cruces had a massive revitalization of their infrastructure, this project would create thousands of jobs for the next few years to come. The project would also encourage more industry development in the local area, since improved infrastructure makes the transportation of goods cheaper and more efficient. This would stimulate the local economy and produce more money in the long run than the entire project cost.

The question always comes up how would such a massive project be financed? Unfortunately, right now the federal government only pays for roughly 28% of infrastructure projects. The only solution to this is to convince the federal government to increase their infrastructure budget. The money the federal government spends will be returned many times over. So I ask you, message your representatives in Congress.